No no, I'm not referring to my self as 'a loser' after calling the NHS about my odd abdominal noises, but it's not far off. After registering my symptoms with the telephonist, she advised a nurse would call me back within 10 hours.
I think 10 hours is fair considering the non-urgent nature of the call, but nevertheless, it's quite a long period of time to spend staring at your phone (as you inevitably do when you're expecting someone to call). Anyway, five hours later my iPhone starts ringing (very loudly as I've cranked the volume up to maximum to make extra sure I can hear it) and.... it promptly switches itself off before I can answer the bloody thing! Argh!
That iPhone is a highly advanced piece of technology that can send emails and tweets, get me onto facebook, hold apps for just about everything and do all kinds of weird and wonderful things, but it can't handle the basic function of a phone.
So all I'm left with is a slightly peeved message from a nurse who probably thinks I hung up on her. The call's technically been dealt with, she says, so if I still need their services I'll need to call back. And wait another 10 hours?! Noooo.
So there you go, that was my slightly pointless NHS Direct adventure. All in all I think they did a grand job considering I called them about gurgling.
Oh yes, and last night I also watched The Biggest Loser (UK) grand finale. I ruddy love that programme. I started off raging against it, shaking my head about the fact it was promoting super fast weight loss that's unachievable for most overweight people. At least the people who have full time jobs and don't have nutritionists and personal trainers barking at them for 8 hours a day, anyway. I mean, they started off losing 1 or 2 stones in the first week. And after that anything less than a 7lb loss was seen as a failure. In a week?! Christ, I'd be expecting a fanfare if I lost that in a month!
Tell a fat person they can lose weight that fast and you might as well give them a tonne of cake and say 'hey, it's Ok - you can eat that now because I've seen people shed a stone in a week. It's possible, so you'll be size zero in no time - when you want to do it, of course. For now, you can just eat that cake.'
But a few episodes in and you do realise that these lardy people are actually becoming incredibly fit, even if they are still big. And the organisers do make them carry on the program for 16 weeks after the initial 8-week bootcamp before they do the final, which I guess is the most responsible way of making sure they carry on their new lifestyles in the long term.
Watching the final last night, I was so blown away by what they achieved. But the thing that stuck with me is that stroppy ol' Jessie, who I didn't like much, went from 18st 11lb - which is at least 6 stone heavier than me, to an amazing 11st 3lbs, which frankly, is a weight I would kill for right now. And she looked HOT.
I saw these people as being way, way, way above my size and didn't connect my circumstances with theirs in the slightest. I thought people that are that big are bound to lose fairly significant amounts of weight quickly, but I didn't think any one of them would actually be thinner than me by the end of the series. When Jessie was asked how she'd lost so much weight, she commented that one of the trainers had told her that running was the best thing for weight loss, so she'd been running 5-10km EVERY DAY during the 16 weeks before the final, and that had contributed towards her losing a whopping 40% of her body weight by that final weigh in. That's incredible.
I've always said that I'm not a runner. Back in the day, I used to be able to run for 15 minutes, but that was years ago and even with my brief stint with a personal trainer this year, half a mile was a struggle. But if Jessie can bloody do it, then so can I. I might not have liked Jessie as a contestant, but I definitely admire her for what she's achieved and, surprisingly enough, I think she's going to be just the inspiration I needed to get myself running.
No comments:
Post a Comment